Newbie needs your views

[ideoplastic]

I live in Harlow, Essex and thinking of subscribing to NTL BB, would
appreciate any comments from NTL customers in this part of the country as
regards reliability, etc. Also being a newbie, would appreciate any
comments/advice as to which of the 3 packages would be the best to
choose. I use the net mainly for online flight simulation and internet radio,
as well as usual browsing, etc. Currently on Demon dial-up and fed-up
waiting for over 5 years for BT to sort out local exchange (now scheduled for July 2005! lol)


Thanks in advance.


JB

[SMHarman]

If your choice is Narrowband or NTL BB, I would take the NTL BB in a heartbeat. Generally the network performance is good (nationwide), there are some problems, other parts of the NTL infrastructure creak, Mail and News being the primary problems (especially when compared to the spam trapped Demon mail and their quality news servers - if you use them).

Of the three service levels for you I would think the 750/128k would be best, this would give adequate capacity up to the network for the positional data etc on flight sim. If you have no problems with that on dial up though, you could start with the 300k and be about break even on changeover cost.

[badnbusy]

Hi ideoplastic

I would suggest the 750k package also. Did you know that ntl are going to upgrade the 750k package to 2Mb early next year?!

[Matth]

Anything you can do NOW on dialup, you can do 6x on the 300k - my worst speed issues are the times when nothing moves at all, and in that case, no amount of speed upgrades will help.
Actually, while the download is 6x, the upload (as you'd be on 300k/64 with a cable modem, if not taking TV as well) is only 2x. With TV as well, broadband through the old Pace STB (may be different with the Samsung), you get 300k/128 - the only case where you actually get any advantage from taking multiple services!
On the 750k/128, the download is 15x, and the up is 4x.

If you held fire until the speed changes are done, you could avoid the £25 admin fee.

If you ever do get broadband on your exchange though, Phones4U's £34.99 deal that takes over the BT Line rental, and does the same as their current £24.99 package - unlimited 512k broadband and unlimited local/national calls anytime - while you get no consideration AT ALL for taking all 3 NTL services.

[etccarmageddon]

I also recommend the NTL £25 a month product.

[AndrewJ]

I agree there the 25 pound a month package will be worth your while especially as it will be upgraded to the 2mb service in first quarter of 2005.


Also though I mean the 300k 17.99 service will be good once upgraded to 1mb but the cap ( unconfirmed as of yet ) will be a limiting factor with simulations.

I advice you to move onto the middle service.

Will be way faster then what your on now.

[ideoplastic]

Thanks very much to all for the very informative replies.

I've contacted NTL to subscribe to the BB service and I'm awaiting their
call to confirm all OK. Unfortunately waiting almost another year until the
exchange is upgraded is almost impossible to bear.

If I may just bother you guys with a couple more questions, I would be very
grateful.

Is it possible to have more than one connection point in the house, say
in different rooms?

Also what equipment is used to connect? Is it connected to the PC
say via USB or will I need to add come sort of Network card.

Thanks


JB

[goodsey]

I have the 750k BB, though I'd recommend the Ethernet connection rather than USB.

No problems with the service and thanks to the guys on this forum, some very informative discussions.

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by ideoplastic

Thanks very much to all for the very informative replies.

I've contacted NTL to subscribe to the BB service and I'm awaiting their
call to confirm all OK. Unfortunately waiting almost another year until the
exchange is upgraded is almost impossible to bear.

If I may just bother you guys with a couple more questions, I would be very
grateful.

Is it possible to have more than one connection point in the house, say
in different rooms?

Also what equipment is used to connect? Is it connected to the PC
say via USB or will I need to add come sort of Network card.

Thanks


JB

You can connect with USB or ethernet card, I would recommend the latter, especially as you can get them for under £5 these days and because of the second question (i'm answering them backwards)

Multiple connection points. NTL will give you one IP address, so only one piece of hardware can be connected directly to the NTL Cable Modem and realistically you will not want to be shlepping the CM around the house when you want to connect elsewhere, though NTL could put two Cable termination points in the house.

For multiple locations / PCs you are best to build a home network, it's very simple, you get a Router (Linksys are the ones I would recommend), plug this into the CM, plug the PC into this (you need an ethernet card if you do this), then you can run other ethernet cables to where you want the additional access. Or you can get a wireless router and card, then you are wirefree and can go anywhere in range - if you do this it is best to get NTL to place the CM centrally to the house so that your wirless signal distributes evenly through the place.

Have a search (on the top menu) for network or wireless network on here and you'll be able to get plenty of information.